


i'm a penny in a diamond mine

by redbrunja



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-04
Updated: 2014-12-04
Packaged: 2018-02-28 03:10:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2716697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redbrunja/pseuds/redbrunja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn't the first time she'd known she was making a mistake even as she took off her clothes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i'm a penny in a diamond mine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [catteo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/catteo/gifts).



> Happy birthday.

"–take a couple of days, get your head on straight–"

 

"– _I'm_ not the one with my head up my ass–"

 

"We're done here, Agent Skye," Coulson said. He pointed at the door with the pen in his hand. "I'd suggest you take some time and think about what–"

 

"It was the wrong call," Skye shouted. "That's why I didn't follow your order because–"

 

Coulson slapped his hand down on his desk. "I said you're done here, Skye."

 

He stared at her, the look in his eyes almost pleading.

 

Skye opened her mouth a couple of times, couldn't even _begin_ to figure out what she wanted to say, and then spun on her heel and stormed out.

 

She made sure to slam the door behind her as loudly as she could.

 

~~~

 

She took the quinjet, flew until stretching her legs was more appealing than putting another mile between her and the Bus.

 

The quinjet had been pointing Southeast when she took off, and she'd just kept going. When she set the plane down in a deserted field outside of a little coastal town and finally turned on the GPS, she discovered she was in Italy.

 

"Okay, this will be fun," she told herself, hearing the doubt in her own voice. She clocked the jet and headed into town.

 

She'd left her gun on the plane, but she had a knife in her boot. A quick stop at an ATM, a drugstore to pick up a burner phone, and she was ready for... whatever dangers this small town had to offer. The way things were going, she half expected another alien artifact to plummet from the clouds and start wrecking havoc.

 

Skye went looking for a bar. That was a logical move, right? Alcohol would for sure get rid of the restless, miserable feeling that had been clinging to her since... she couldn't quite pinpoint when it started.

 

It would also drown out the part of her that wanted to rush back to the Bus. She should, she knew she should, but she was still angry. She'd either apologize or go back to yelling at Coulson and make things worse. Both options made her feel like she was going to throw up.

 

So a bar it was! Solid plan.

 

~~

 

Holy crap, Skye had found herself in the one town in the world without a single bar.

 

How was that even possible?

 

There was an upside: when she'd stopped at a cafe to ask for directions her complete inability to speak Italian had resulted in her being chivvied to an outdoor table and served a plate of this pasta seafood dish that was arguably the best thing she'd ever put in her mouth. Plus, they gave her, like, four glasses of red wine. And then she had about six cups of espresso while she played with her new burner phone.

 

Maybe Italy wasn't terrible?

 

Unlike her decisions, which were, so, so terrible. Because sometime after the sixth cup of espresso, she texted Ward.

 

:-<

 

Skye remembered May coming to her room, after the Diviner had been destroyed, after she'd met her father, after Ward had put two bullets in Whitehall's head and then folded her hand around a set of car keys. He'd cupped the back of her neck, thumb caressing the line of her jaw, his expression intense, and he'd said _Skye, you need to leave right now._

 

She'd gone.

 

He'd let her go.

 

After she'd gotten safely back to the Bus, May had looked at her with dead-serious eyes and said, "you can't ever let yourself trust him."

 

And Skye had said, "I don't. I won't." And she'd meant it; she'd spent that night staring at the ceiling listing every single person she knew of who was dead or damaged because of Grant Ward. She didn't let herself remember how warm his lips had felt against hers, how much she liked the way he kissed her. How safe the touch of his hands made her feel, even after everything.

 

 _are you enjoying italy?_ he texted back.

 

Her response: _no._

 

And that was it. She spent a long time staring at her phone - and not, like, she was playing candy crush or whatever, but literally, just waiting for a text, before realizing she was being stupid. She shoved her phone into her pocket, overpaid for her meal, and went to go find something to distract herself with.

 

There _had_ to be a bar or a club or _somewhere_ Skye could go lose herself. Normally, she'd get her laptop out, do a little hacking but all her current projects were related to SHIELD and/or her screwed up family tree, and no thank you. That was the opposite of what she needed right now.

 

She spent a couple hours walking around and all she managed to find a bunch of cute little houses, a row of shops by the waterfront that were all closed, and a bunch of ridiculously happy people. There were cute little families and couples staring at each other adoringly every way she looked. She didn't know _what,_ specifically, they were happy about, because everyone was speaking Italian and Skye didn't know a gazillian languages.

 

She wasn't anything special. Fucked up genetics and being good with computers. Wasn't. Anything. Special.

 

Wasn't worth getting killed for.

 

She shoved her hands into her pockets, wandered down a cobblestone lane.

 

Flying off had been a stupid idea.

 

What had she thought this was going to accomplish? Did she _want_ Coulson to throw her away? He was forgiving, he'd forgive her, he'd forgiven all of her other epic fuck ups, she just needed to go back and apologize, it didn't matter that she was still pissed at Coulson and she _wasn't wrong_ and–

 

Holy crap, that was Ward, right there, on that street corner.

 

It was evening, lights coming on in the buildings around them, patches of brightness against the velvety dusk. She shouldn't be so sure it was him, standing a block away, but she was. She knew it was him, just from the way he stood, just from the way that his head had turned toward her.

 

Skye froze. She should run. She should turn around and run right back to the quinjet.

 

Instead she walked over to him, slow, everything feeling unreal.

 

"What the hell are you doing in Italy?" she said when she got close enough that she didn't have to shout. Which turned out to be so close she had to crink her head back to look him in the eye.

 

"Waiting for you," he answered.

 

Skye thought about that.

 

Then she reached out, grabbed the lapel of his leather jacket, and pulled his mouth down to hers.

 

 

~~~~

 

 _This is a bad idea,_ Skye thought, as Ward carried her inside an apartment. Not very far inside; the instant that the door was closed, Ward was pressing her up against it, her legs wrapped around his waist.

 

Skye kissed him back, bit his lip, dug her nails into the back of his neck. He made a wonderfully wrecked noise when she did that.

 

This was a bad, bad idea.

 

But it felt - it felt familiar, weirdly? It wasn't the first time she'd fucked someone she shouldn't. It wasn't the first time she'd _known_ she was making a mistake even as she took off her clothes.

 

"You can't tell anyone about this," she pulled her lips away from his. "No one. _Ever."_

 

He leaned after her mouth.

 

"I mean it," she said.

 

"I won't," Ward promised.

 

Skye told herself she didn't believe him, but she did.

 

~~~

 

He licked a quick circle around her clit and she pressed back against the bed, hips jerking up. She could feel her orgasm hovering, belly tight with anticipation, and then he moved away, moving down her thigh with little biting kisses that just winched the tension tighter.

 

Ward was not the first guy to go down on her, okay? But when other guys had their heads between her thighs, it was _to get her off._ Ward was apparently attempting to drive her to homicide. _It would not be that long of a drive._

 

His stubble scrapped along the inside of her knee, her inner calf. Ward cupped her foot in his hand, ran a thumb along her toes.

 

"I like the color," he said.

 

Skye pushed herself to her elbows, looked down at him.

 

The image hit her like a punch to the stomach: her bare foot, toenails painted a bright, cheerful pink, and Ward, eyes closed, dark hair and sharp cheekbones, kissing the arch of her foot.

 

She would remember this forever, the way Ward looked kissing her ankle and the way it made her guts feel like razor wire.

 

She must have made a sound because his eyes snapped open, fixed on hers. She didn't want to know what he saw when he looked at her, but whatever it was, it made him crawl towards her, slinging her thighs over his shoulders, putting his mouth back on her pussy.

 

Skye spread her knees wide, dug her heels into his shoulders, trying to get him to give her that orgasm that had been hovering for what felt like forever.

 

He put one arm across her hips, holding her steady.

 

Her skin felt electrified, the muscles in her stomach jumping. Sweat slicked her skin.

 

God, was she making those noises? She wasn't _quiet_ in bed, never had been, but she'd never heard herself make those needy, _wanting_ sounds before.

 

She heard herself say his name, her hands clenched tight in the sheets, and it sounded like she was begging.

 

He stroked his free hand along her thigh, calluses wonderfully rough against her skin, and she made this whimpering, pleading sound that had his fingers digging into her skin, hard enough to leave bruises as he flicked her clit with his tongue and she finally, finally, _finally_ came.

 

Skye shouted when her climax hit, jerking her hips, grinding against his face, and he let her, he kept working her clit, dragging her into another orgasm on the heels of the first.

 

She closed her eyes, rode it out.

 

When she finally caught her breath, she looked down to see Ward looking unbearably smug, chin resting on her belly. His mouth was slick and when he saw where she was looking, he licked his bottom lip.

 

She fumbled with one hand at the head of the bed, managed to grab the one pillow that that hadn't been knocked to the floor and hit him with it.

 

 

~~

"Sleeping in makes the jetlag worse," Ward said.

 

Skye groaned in response, curled into a tighter ball.

 

At around five in the morning, the bedroom had begun to fill with light and ridiculously annoying birds had started singing. Ward had been dozing on the far side of the bed and she'd taken the opportunity to dig around in her pants for a hairtie, yank her hair into a lose bun, find an eyemask in the bedside table, and rescue one of the pillows from the floor to shove over her head.

 

She had _not_ requested a wake up call.

 

But she did smell coffee.

 

Well played.

 

"Whatever," she said, reluctantly sitting up and shoving the eyemask up onto her forehead.  The covers fell  to her waist. Skye squinted blearily at him. "Five a.m. to noon is a totally reasonable sleep schedule.

 

Ward looked like he was fighting not to smile. He sat down on the edge of the bed, handed her a coffee cup and a pastry bag.

 

She went straight for the coffee. It was hot, strong, and burned the taste of sleep out of her mouth. She peered curiously inside the paper bag.

 

"It's raspberry," he said helpfully.

 

Skye pulled out a cornetto, took a bite. Flakey pastry, sweet jam filling.

 

"This is pretty good," she admitted.

 

Ward was staring at her - not only her tits, which she'd expected - but, like, everywhere. She watched his eyes travel from her belly to her breasts to where random strands of hair brushed her neck, to her mouth.

 

Skye licked her fingers, watched his eyes follow the motion.

 

She set her coffee and the rest of her pastry on the bedside table.

 

"We have plans," he said, voice rough.

 

Skye raised her eyebrows.

 

"We do?" she said, highly doubtful about where this was going.

 

" Teppo Virtanan."

 

"Who?"

 

"You tell me," he said, forcing his voice to sound light. His gaze was back down on her belly. Skye realized he was looking at her scars. She felt flushed. Embarrassed and angry and– she wished he'd just been staring at her tits. She was right in front of him, topless. He should be staring at her tits.

 

"I'm going to take a shower." she said. She didn't get up, though. Instead she brought her hands to her breasts, rolled her thumbs across her nipples consideringly.

 

~

 

 

"Can you tell me who Teppo Virtanan is?"

 

Skye was on her second burner phone in two days.

 

"I'll call you back in fifteen," Bobbi answered. Her words were brusque but her tone was warm; no one would suspect that it was partially Skye's fault that one of Bobbi's best friends was dead and totally Skye's fault that Bobbi's ex-husband/current BF was seriously injured.

 

While she waited, Skye bought a gelato, went down to the waterfront to enjoy it. 

 

Her hair was wet from the shower she'd eventually taken.

 

 

After Ward had rubbed one off between her tits, after he'd come hot across the skin of her throat. After he'd reciprocated by going down on her again, not screwing around this time. The scrap of stubble across her thighs, Ward's tongue flicking across and then pressing hard against her clit- this morning's orgasm had snapped through Skye like a firecracker and left her with a pleasantly wired feeling that lingered.

 

 _A better buzz than coffee_ , she thought, and then wanted to kick herself.

 

Eleven minutes later, when a pigeon was eyeing Skye's gelato cup creepily and inching closer, Bobbi called her back.

 

"Bottom line, he's a total scumbag." Bobbi opened with. "You didn't go on a date with him or anything, right?"

 

"Ha, ha, I would never do that," Skye said with a super-fake laugh. "How big a scumbag?"

 

"He's a human trafficker. He supplies girls and drugs to half the brothels in Northern Europe. Also, he runs a marketing firm that he uses to launder the money."

 

"Total scumbag is right," Skye responded.

 

"He's also vacationing on the Amalfi Coast right now," Bobbi continued. "Skye, do you need backup?"

 

"Nope, I am good," she said

 

The pigeon hopped towards her and she nudged her almost empty gelato cup at it.

 

"You know what happened to Hunter wasn't your fault, right? He's going to be fine," Bobbi continued. "And I mean, breaking his jaw? That almost counts as doing everyone a favor."

  
From the phone, Skye heard an outrage squawk that was loud enough for the phone's speaker to pick up.

 

"I said almost," Bobbi snapped.

 

Skye chuckled dutifully. She tried very hard not to remember the cracking sound Lance's jaw had made, her father screaming at Lance to _"stop calling her by the wrong name!"_

 

"Thanks, that's what I wanted to know," she said, and ended the call.

 

~~~

 

When she walked back into hotel room, Ward was sitting on the end of the bed, fingers laced together.

 

He jerked his head up and for an instant he looked - vulnerable, yearning. Then his face went blank.

 

Skye told herself not to imagine things. Not to trust anything. Or at least, not to trust anything that hadn't been verified by an independent third party.

 

"Okay, I assume you have a plan?" she asked, lifting her chin up, telling herself to act like the badass SHIELD agent she almost was.

 

Ward tilted his head, grinned at her. Such a cocky bastard.

 

"Of course," he said. "And I think you'll like it."

 

She did.

 

~~~~

 

Many hours, a large amount of property damage, a car chase, two fist fights, five hacked bank accounts, and one massive data leak later, Skye and Ward were back at the apartment, back in bed.

 

Skye was on her knees, ass in the air, forehead resting against her folded arms, while Ward fucked her from behind. He kissed his way up her spine, brushed his lips along the nape of her neck.

 

She shivered when he scrapped his teeth along the line of her shoulder.

 

She loved the weight of him, the heat, the feeling of him curved over her. He was so controlled when he thrust into her, his hips barely moving, his hands resting lightly on her waist.

 

"Skye," he breathed, mouth against the shell of her ear.  He sounded certain, so wonderfully certain. And he _knew,_ he knew better than anyone that 'Skye' was just a persona she'd created. She'd always known she wasn't Mary Sue Poots and being her father's daughter felt almost as wrong.

 

She'd really liked being Skye.

 

"Yes, again," she said, rocking back against him, his cock sliding deeper into her. Not the most specific instruction, but he knew what she wanted.

 

He pulled her upright, her hair tumbling around her shoulders. She tipped her head back and he kissed her cheek, the corner of her mouth.

 

"Skye," he repeated. He spread one hand across her belly, across her scars. "My Skye."

 

Ward reached between her thighs, teased her clit as he continued to fuck her. God, she could feel him _everywhere_.

 

"Skye," he said again. He was a liar, she knew that,  but she wanted him to lie to her, wanted to hear her name said like it was the truth.


End file.
